The talented Mr Packer draws curtain on an Asian odyssey

That jazz musicians float in and out of Hong Kong - or of any other major city for that matter - is no big deal. They come, they go, and it is in their nature. When the man calling in the removal company is Dave Packer, however, there is cause for serious concern.

Packer, one of the finest jazz pianists in Asia and a man of many other musical skills, including his absolute mastery of the chromatic harmonica, first washed up on these shores in 1975 having already made his mark as a modern jazzman in London and Paris.

Feeling the lure of Asia, he headed from France straight to Bangkok, taking Chet Baker's drummer with him, following negotiations with the smacked-out trumpeter that had to be conducted through a closed door.

While in Thailand he jammed with that nation's most prominent jazz clarinetist and composer, a musician whose other job, in one of the few countries left in the world that still takes monarchies really seriously, is being king.

Hong Kong came next, at a time when the only place in town to feature live jazz on a regular basis was Ned Kelly's Last Stand. It was Packer's tireless work, along with that of saxophonist Ric Halstead, that created a niche for modern jazz in Hong Kong's live music scene.

When a young Eugene Pao joined them at Rick's Cafe in the mid-1980s, entrepreneur Hans Lodders saw the possibilities in recording the music, and the landmark Sketches album was made featuring the pianist's ground-breaking arrangements using traditional Chinese instruments in a jazz context. From the success of that project it was a short step to more CDs for the Kindred Spirits label, which he co-founded, and to the establishment of the Jazz Club in which Packer was a partner and where he regularly played piano and harmonica.